Star Slinger

Star Slinger is one-man beat machine Darren Williams. The 24-year-old Manchester resident and art-house theater ticket-taker studied music technology at Leeds Metropolitan University and tried different styles of music-- emo, techno-- before starting his Star Slinger project in April. Since then, he's released a bounty of original beats as well as unofficial remixes for artists including Deerhunter and Small Black. All of his music is available for free at his site.

Williams' style combines the hyper soul sampling of Kanye West or Dipset producers Heatmakerz with a bubbling psychedelia reminiscent of J Dilla's spacier moments. In his hands, Deerhunter's 1960s-style lullaby "Helicopter" turns into the type of sliced-up head-nodder that Prefuse 73 used to offer.

Williams is increasingly in demand, and will soon release a collaborative EP with ambient-electro act Teams on Mexican Summer, a 7" on Double Denim, a new project with Canadian rapper Emay and San Francisco dream pop artist Blackbird Blackbird, along with another LP of beats.

Pitchfork: What was your first instrument?

Star Slinger: The keyboard. I was actually asked to play organ in a church for my Christian school when I was five. I played this old 90s techno song, 2 Unlimited's "No Limits". My dad taught it to me. It's a terrible song, the lowest denominator in music you've ever heard. Everyone laughed their asses off, basically.

Pitchfork: Were you in any bands in your teens?

SS: Yeah, a few. They sounded like 90s emo bands like Cap'n Jazz. But I was also listening to house music and dance music and hip hop, too. I started playing guitar and DJing simultaneously when I was around 14. When I was growing up, the dance thing was more like a secret, bedroom life. Then I started going to clubs and got exposed to the rave scene.

Pitchfork: Why did you start the Star Slinger project?

SS: It was out of a love for sampling. I've always wanted to do it, but I didn't have the courage to make this sort of music-- I just didn't think I'd be good at it. But once I started, it became addicting.

Pitchfork: What inspired you to attempt this style in the first place?

SS: House records definitely inspired me: Pete Heller's "Big Love", old Armand Van Helden records, Daft Punk, DJ Falcon. Then I heard J Dilla, who was using some of the same techniques as those house producers. I'm not really into rave anymore. The whole speed of it, how people dance-- it's really extreme and long. And I hate the weekend culture; I prefer to treat every moment like it's valuable. So that's really what turned me off of certain dance music. I like things to be slower and a lot cooler now, and even when I'm making a fast track, I want it to have some sort of soul.

Pitchfork: What was the first J Dilla song that made an impact on you?

SS: His song "Waves" off of the Donuts LP. The sample he was playing was so short, but what he did with it was amazing.

Pitchfork: A lot of your songs do something similar with small bits of music.

SS: I think it's synonymous with how I want to make the most out of my time-- that's what the music essentially means to me. I just love playing with short clips and making them something more.

Pitchfork: Are you working on another album?

SS: Yeah, my second album is going to be called, Volume 2: Jetpack Jam. It'll be a tiny bit more spacey, but still quite soulful. And there's going to be silly pop moments in there as well.

Pitchfork: We really liked your remix of Deerhunter's "Helicopter". How long did that take you to do?

SS: Around four hours, in one sitting. I work quite fast. I already know what I want to do. I mainly just use a Macbook and I have a Novation Launchpad, which is what Daedelus uses. I have that and a program called Max/MSP, and a keyboard as well. And a turntable, occasionally. I sample in my computer.

Deerhunter: "Helicopter (Star Slinger Remix)"

Pitchfork: You're remixing all of this indie rock stuff. Would you ever want to remix a hip hop song?

SS: I'm working with an MC from Canada named Emay, and he's really young, about 19. I found him on the Internet before I did Star Slinger. I'd send him some beats, and just recently we've made a song that samples Memoryhouse. It's me, Emay, and Blackbird Blackbird. And it'll be under the name Seeing Suge-- like Suge Knight.